I bought a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop last week and I put my old computer in my daughter's room.  Both of these are set up for wireless internet and are working fine.  I got a printer connected to the girls computer by USB and i'm trying to print off my new Dell on that printer via wireless through the girls computer.  Today I tried to set up a home network between the two computers and it didn't work out to well.  I have no idea what I'm doing to begin with and don't know what I need to do.  If anybody can help or point me to a site with step for step instructions for computer dummies please let me know.  Thanks.

Shawn

You've said that they are set up for wireless networking

I asumme that means the have a wireless card in them.   BUT

Do you have a wireless transmitter?

It works like this     Computer --- Hub --- Computer

Not

Computer --- Computer

Unless you want to use a wire then you can go Computer --- Computer.  All you need is a cross over cable.

if both of the computers are running windows up..  go to the comptuer thats connected to the printer.  Go to the control panel.  then printers and faxes.  right click on the printer you want to share.. click share and it will ask you to create a name for it.  as default xp is set to automatically search for network printers.  So a couple min later you should be able to print.  
software firewalls like mcafee and nortons will disable anytype of shareing so if those are installed you will have to disable them from running!

You also need whatever it is that prevents someone from sitting in a car outside your house and accessing everything that goes through your wireless connection.

Quoted: You also need whatever it is that prevents someone from sitting in a car outside your house and accessing everything that goes through your wireless connection.

WEP keys, or if he wants to pay for the good stuff, VPN software.

My girls computer which is hooked up to the printer is running XP Pro and my Dell is running XP Home.  On both computers I was logged in with admin account.  I have now cable modem hooked to a wireless router and both computers has wireless cards in them.  My wireless network is secured so it has a WEP key to enter when you first try to connect.  I installed the printer on both and went to the girls computer and switched it with "shared" then tried to print from mine, and it was saying unable to establishe connection with printer.  I tried a couple hours then gave up for now.  I haven't tried seaching on Google for it or anything.  I'll try that too.  All help is greatful.

Shawn

Well, I wonder if I'm making this more difficult than it should be.  Last night I looked at some results on Google and today I went to my local library and checked out "Basic Home Networking".  I got home all excited and went to work.  Took my laptop into my daughter's room and went to work.  4 hours later I'm pissed off and now my wife, kids, and even the dogs don't dare come around me.  I set up the "home network" on both computers.  On my girls pc I can go to "My Network Places" and see that computer and click on "View Network Groups" and it shows up that computer.  I come to my laptop and do the same thing and under "My Network Places" it don't show anything and when I click on "View Network Groups" a window pops up and shows

"(my network group name) is not accessible.  You might not have permission to use this network resouce.  Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available."

So that is what it says.  I don't know anything else to do.  Anymore ideas????

Thanks,
Shawn

it will give you that message if there are no shared folders one computer or the other create a new folder on the desktop.   name it .. then right click on it sharing and security and fully share that foldre... try that on both systems and see what happens.

if your running ANY software firewalls nortons mcafee, zonealarms.  as default they are setup to block port 135-139 which is used in networking computer.. so if you have a software fire wall temporarily uninstall it and see if that helps any.  

make sure the workgroup is the same, make sure the full computer name is unique on each computer too

with XP you have to atleast set up a guest account in order to share resources

Networking used to be easy enough.

Then we had to louse everything up with all this securtity crap.

tell me about it...

Quoted: Networking used to be easy enough. Then we had to louse everything up with all this secutity crap.

Well I just done the folder on the desktop and sharing it thing.  Nothing happened.  I tried it on both computers.  Now, I went back to my daughter's computer and clicked on "view workgroup computers" and it shows both.  Daughter's and mine.  When I click on my computer, it shows a window that says

"(my computer name) is not accessible.  You might not have permission to use this network resource.  Contact tha admin of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

The network path was not found."

Both computers have different names.  Everything seems to show up on the old computer (daughters).  My new laptop shows nothing on it.  I've turned off firewall and Norton and It still shows that window that it showed before.  Thanks for everyones help.  Maybe we can figure this thing out.

Shawn

my computer network name is p42600.  when i run to another computer on my network.. I can type \\p42600(in the address bar)   and it will bring up the stuff shared on that computer



try that

I went to my computer (named shawn2).  And typed in \\shawn1 (daugher's pc) and it said windows couldn't find it.  On my pc I typed in \\shawn2 and it showed up.  I went to the girls pc and typed in both and it only found the pc I was using and not the other.

Shawn

My girls computer which is hooked up to the printer is running XP Pro and my Dell is running XP Home.

Then you can do this.


computer.howstuffworks.com/home-network5.htm

and

www.homenethelp.com/web/howto/HomeNet-Win2kXP.asp

I just did this this weekend.  You need to do the file sharing AND printer sharing.  You MAY need to install Client for Microsoft Windows and NetBEUI Protocol.  These url's above will tell you how.

You may need two files for NetBEUI, one is NBF.sys, the other NETNBF.inf.  Do a file search for these, see if you have them already.  The NBF.sys goes in c\windows\system32\drivers\ folder.  NETNBF.inf goes in C\Windows\INF\    If you don't have these two files, IM me.

So, just follow the instructions in these two url's, and you should get it working.

Since you have both computers hooked up via wireless network, you need no other hardware.

Quoted: You do NOT need NetBEUI installed, and installing it will slow down your network considerably.  TCP/IP is the only protocol needed. -Troy

I went to the second link that A_Free_Man posted and when through the steps.  Instead of installing NetBEUI I installed TCP/IP and everything works great now.  Thanks for everyone's help.

Shawn

wow,   now i'd like to know how that got uninstalled

Quoted: Quoted: You do NOT need NetBEUI installed, and installing it will slow down your network considerably.  TCP/IP is the only protocol needed. -Troy I went to the second link that A_Free_Man posted and when through the steps.  Instead of installing NetBEUI I installed TCP/IP and everything works great now.  Thanks for everyone's help. Shawn